As a little girl, I always wanted a pony for Christmas. Santa never brought me a pony. So in my late 40s, I started taking horseback riding lessons. When I turned 50, I got my first horse, an Icelandic named Blessi (Veigar frá Búðardal). Little did I know how much fun life with an Icelandic was going to be. Blessi has a unique perspective on life. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoy Blessi. And you will probably read about my cats from time to time.
Raymond Quiet is an artist specializing in making historically accurate reproductions Norse, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, etc. jewelry and armor pieces. His work is exquisite. I own several pieces--turtle brooches, needle case. Plus I have Rus buckles to make another bridle. Kathy and I met him at Viking Days in Ballard. So if you are interested, here is the link.
To the right is a photo of Raymond's Viking horses on Turtle Brooches used on a Norse apron. The horse projections were used to attach ribbons.
Did you know that there were Viking cats? As per a study reported in
Scientific America, researchers
examined the mtDNA of 200 cats dating
from 15,000 to 300 years ago.
Cats were associated with humans
from the beginning of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, probably
helping to control the rat and mice populations. One wave of cats came
out of this area; the other, from Egypt. "Thousands of years later,
cats descended from those in Egypt spread rapidly around Eurasia and
Africa. A mitochondrial lineage common in Egyptian cat mummies from the
end of the fourth century B.C. to the fourth century A.D. was also
carried by cats in Bulgaria, Turkey and sub-Saharan Africa from around
the same time. Sea-faring people probably kept cats to keep rodents in
check, says Geigl, whose team also found cat remains with this maternal
DNA lineage at a Viking site dating to between the eighth and eleventh
century A.D. in northern Germany."
Here is a video of the tremendously cute, blue-eyed Baldur and his
wonderful rider jumping 80 cm and then 90 cm (almost 3 feet) at a
canter. Interestingly his jumps get bolder at the greater height.
The Faroese pony, which averages from 11 to 12 hands, is native to its eponymous island of origin. Like the Icelandic, this breed can tolt, has abundant mane and tail and coat in winter, and is agile over rough terrain. It was used to carry loads on farms and herd sheep.
I remember reading in one source written around 1900 that compared the horse and pony breeds of Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, etc., that the Faroe pony was regarded as being smarter than the other breeds since, not only was it used to herd sheep, but it would trap sheep between its legs to move an individual.
In the 1880s, there were 800 such horses on the Island but the population was severely reduced due to exports to the coal mines for use as pit ponies and the changing needs of the farmers on the island. By the 1960s, there were 5 or 6 known purebreds. Today there 85 purebreds left because of a strong rescue effort to save the equine heritage of the island, as the above video explains. As of 2017, there are 307 registered Icelandics on the island.
You can view the subtitles to this video by clicking the closed caption button.
Source of most info is Wikipedia.
Here
are cute directions for crocheting an Icelandic horse to use as a key
chain. Skip to the last 10 seconds of the video to see how cute the
results are. Don't worry subtitles are in English.
I wish I had
paid more attention when my Grandmother taught me to crochet. I wish I
had spent more time with my grandparents period.
Over the years, Blessi has taught me that helping a horse to overcome a
scary situation can be done in two different ways. Systematic
desensitization chunks down the situation and gradually introduces the
scary item (Blessi prefers treats being involved) in stages acceptable
to the horse. Flooding involves overwhelming the horse with the stimuli
to until the horse shuts down and does what the human wants. Here's a
great explanation of the two methods and why only one of them is
Blessi-approved.
Gréta Vilborg Guðmundsdóttir wrote her thesis "Product or Being?
Development of the Image of the
Icelandic Horse" for her Masters of
Design, The Department of Design and Architecture, Iceland Academy of
the Arts. She examines the history of the image of the Icelandic horse
and investigates how the breed is becoming almost synonymous with the
image of a high-stepping tolting horse at the expense of the reliable,
all terrain family horse.
Per Guðmundsdóttir, "Constructing this
narrow image of the international competitive toelter horse creates the
danger of losing the valuable abilities of the Icelandic horse that
had developed over 1100 years. The main characteristics of the Icelandic
horse that make it in demand are, among others, its frugality and
friendliness, vigour and endurance. Considering its size it is
unbelievably strong and compares well with other horse breeds."
She categorizes the photos of horses shown in 327 issues of Eiðfaxi
magazine between 1978-2012 to find that in 2003 to 2006, photos of
horses tolting comprised 70% of all horse photos. "At this time the
expansion of the economy was greatest and money streamed into the
field. There is a strong demand for stepping high and almost all the
stallions are shown in the symbolic toelt stance." She notes this trend
dropped during the following recession but re-occurred during 2011 to
2012.
Guðmundsdóttir also interviewed 10 professionals and
people generally interested in the Icelandic horse breed in Iceland
about their image of the Icelandic horse and how it has changed over the
past 20 years. "But in the same way all share worries that great
emphasis is placed on competitive characteristics and high-stepping. To
get this high-stepping ability it is necessary that the horse has a
certain character that the general rider cannot cope with. The
high-stepping toelter horse therefore is not suitable for the average
rider nor for the increasing number of foreign tourists who want to
enjoy riding their own horse out in Iceland’s impressive natural
environment. The interviews also revealed that with the present breeding
objectives we are losing those traits that best characterise the
Icelandic horse, traits that do not turn only on gait and appearance."
Not everybody is going to agree with Guðmundsdóttir's conclusions but
her research does present some interesting topics for discussion. And
it is not often one reads about the Icelandic horse from the perspective
about societal norms about beauty and how the economy can drive
marketing images. Besides her final project of a life sized,
transparent sculpture of an Icelandic horse is beauty indeed.
Source: https://skemman.is/bitstream/1946/19227/1/Product_or_Being__ma-design-lhi.pdf
Dragonslaire. The purpose is for people to get together to share and work on projects. As you can tell, I went way overboard on the sharing part by creating a posterboard presentation on my reconstruction of two bridles found in Norse ship burials--one in Sweden and one in Norway.
I think I went way overboard but it was a lot of fun to meet people and see all the wonderful projects on which they are working.
A special shout out to Countess Ilaria who provides inspiration and background knowledge on her web site about how to make period bridles.
To the moon from Seriouspony on Vimeo.
Kathy Sierra and Steiner Sigurbjornsson are leading the Intrizen group
to develop a new way of working with the horse to develop its pride,
agility, and fitness through positive reinforcement and a sense of play.
So instead of chasing the horse with a longe whip, what if you
rewarded the horse for chasing a plastic bag and then shaped that
behavior to high leg lift? Icelandics aren't known for their baroque
movements or collected canter but you can see some of the results in
this video. Five gaiters are developing the most amazing, springy trot
and four gaiters are volunteering loose rein tolt. I really need to get
serious on starting this program with Blessi.
Raymond Quiet is an artist specializing in making historically accurate reproductions Norse, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, etc. jewelry and armor pieces. His work is exquisite. I own several pieces--turtle brooches, needle case. Plus I have Rus buckles to make another bridle. Kathy and I met him at Viking Days in Ballard. So if you are interested, here is the link.
